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Love Me or Leave Me (Restored / Remastered, Dual-layered DVD)
- Starring: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell
- Director: Charles Vidor
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Description
One of the gutsiest movie musicals of the 1950s, Love Me or Leave Me is the true story of 1930s torch-singer Ruth Etting, here played by Doris Day. While working in a dime-a-dance ******, Ruth is discovered by Chicago racketeer Martin "The Gimp" Snyder (fascinatingly played with nary a redeeming quality by James Cagney). The smitten Snyder exerts pressure on his show-biz connections, and before long Ruth is a star of nightclubs, stage and films. Ruth continues to string Snyder along to get ahead, but she can't help falling in love with musician Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell). After sinking his fortune into a nightclub for Ruth's benefit, Snyder is rather understandably put out when he finds her in the arms of Alderman. Snyder shoots the musician (but not fatally) and is carted away to prison. Upon his release, Snyder finds that Ruth is still in love with Alderman; he is mollified by her act of largesse in keeping her promise to perform in his nightclub at a fraction of her normal salary. No one comes off particularly nobly in Love Me or Leave Me, even though the still-living Ruth Etting, Martin Snyder and Johnny Alderman were offered full script approval. The fact that we are seeing flesh-and-blood opportunists rather than the usual sugary-sweet MGM musical stick figures naturally makes for a more powerful film. In his autobiography, James Cagney had nothing but praise for his co-star Doris Day, and bemoaned the fact that she would soon turn her back on dramatic roles to star in a series of fluffy domestic comedies. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Features
- Genre: Musical
- Category: Biopic [feature], Marriage Drama, Musical Drama, Showbiz Drama
- Theme: Alcoholism, Crumbling Marriages, Infidelity, Ladder to the Top, Musician's Life
- Release Date: April 26, 2005
- Rating: NR (Not Rated)Rating Opens in New Window - Suitable for Children
- Studio: Warner Home Video
- Lead Actors: Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith, Tom Tully
- Supporting Actors: Paul McGuire, Dorothy Abbott, Jimmy Cross, Robert Malcolm, Mauritz Hugo, Roy Engel, John Day, Dale Van Sickel, Henry Kulky, Benny Burt, Barry Regan, John Damler, Veda Ann Borg, Shirley Wilson, Bob Stephenson, Otto Reichow, Chet Brandenburg, Genevieve Aumont, Robert Carson, Michael Kostrick
- Director: Charles Vidor
- Picture Format: Letterbox
- Run Time: 2 hr 2 min
- Language: English, French
- Subtitle Language: English, French, Spanish
- Format: DVD
Awards
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Awards: Academy Awards (1)
Nominations: Academy Awards (5)
Nominee: Academy Awards Best Actor 1955, James Cagney
Nominee: Academy Awards Best Screenplay 1955, Isobel Lennart
Additional Information
- DPCI: 246-02-6301
- ASIN: B002KV5NXG
- Catalog #: 11447795
- Item can not be gift wrapped.
Shipping & Policies
- You may return this item to any Target store.Opens in New Window
- Shipping & Delivery InformationOpens in New Window
- Estimated Ship Dimensions : 7.54 inches length x 5.5 inches width x 0.56 inches height
- Estimated Ship Weight: 0.27 pound.
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Expert Reviews
An MGM musical remarkably free of sentimentality, Love Me or Leave Me (1955) features top-billed Doris Day as 1920s and 30s blues singer Ruth Etting and James Cagney as her sadistic gangster husband Martin "The Gimp" Snyder. A more bitter than sweet view of Etting's real life rise to fame and her twisted relationship with Snyder, screenwriters Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart and director Charles Vidor present Etting and Snyder as equally ruthless in their professional and personal lives. Even as his adoration of Etting may humanize him, Cagney's Snyder is also psychotically violent; Day matches Cagney's intensity as the tortured yet emotionally cruel Etting. Punctuated by Day's performances of Etting hits like Shaking the Blues Away, and the new composition I'll Never Stop Loving You, Love Me or Leave Me became a box office hit, despite fan objections to Day's uncharacteristically licentious onscreen presence. Even though critics agreed that Day could hold her own dramatically opposite Cagney, only Cagney received an Oscar nomination for his fascinating performance as a most unsavory man. Also nominated for several other Oscars including Best Song and Score, Love Me or Leave Me won the Oscar for Fuchs's story. Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
